Литературный факт (Dec 2024)
On the history of the study of F. Sologub’s work: a report by F.A. Vasiliev-Ushkuinik at the State Academy of Art Sciences (1929)
Abstract
The article represents a partial reconstruction of one of the first historical and literary studies of Fedor Sologub’s novel The Petty Demon. Its author, F.A. Vasiliev-Ushkuynik, conducted it in the late 1920s and early 1930s and relied on the archival materials that were already in the Pushkin House at that time, as well as on the information collected during his research among the writer’s coworkers during his life in the town Velikie Luki. These materials formed the basis of the article, which for a long time was under consideration in the editorial office of the almanac “Zven’ia.” V.D. Bonch-Bruevich, who headed the project, informed Vasiliev that the editorial board was considering the possibility of placing his work in the next issue of the almanac. However, the author did not wait for a definite answer and decided to take his manuscript. The original text has not been found, but we can reconstruct the content of the work from materials preserved in the fund of the State Academy of Art Sciences (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), particularly the report “F. Sologub in the work on The Petty Demon,” read at a meeting of the subsection of Russian literature in 1929 by Vasiliev. Vasiliev’s letters to V.I. Annensky-Krivich and N.K. Gudzij, along with his correspondence with Bonch-Bruevich (RGALI, Russian State Library), allow us to reconstruct the history of the work and its main points. The appendix contains the theses of the report and the minutes of the meeting of the State Academy of Art Sciences with the discussion of the presentation of Vasiliev.
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